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The CMA also accused Actavis in December of raising the price of packs of 10mg hydrocortisone tablets by 12,000 per cent in eight years, from 70p to £88.

Around a million prescriptions of hydrocortisone were distributed last year. The drug is prescribed to patients whose adrenal glands do not produce enough steroid hormones, such as those suffering from Addison’s disease, which affects around 8,400 UK patients.

The investigation is part of a wider probe by the watchdog into the deals of the pharmaceutical industry. In December, it fined Pfizer a record £84.2million after finding it had raised charges to the NHS for an epilepsy drug by 2,600 per cent overnight.

The competition watchdog said that Actavis and Concordia had agreed to fix a price for the drugs

Andrew Groves, the CMA’s senior responsible officer for the investigation, said: ‘Anti-competitive agreements can cost the NHS, and ultimately the taxpayer, by stopping competition bringing down the cost of lifesaving drugs like hydrocortisone tablets.

‘We allege these agreements were intended to keep Actavis UK as the sole supplier of a drug relied on by thousands of patients – and in a position which could allow it to dictate and prolong high prices.’

Yesterday it was revealed that pharmaceutical firms have lowered the prices of 14 cancer medicines after the NHS threatened to stop paying for them.

The treatments faced being withdrawn from use after a review of the Cancer Drugs Fund found that they cost too much.

But because of the discount they can now be employed in routine NHS use.

Both Actavis and Concordia declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.